Facebook advertising: is it worth it?
by Leila Potgieter on 2012/06/18
When General Motors pulled out of Facebook advertising in March this year, there was a small tidal wave of panic across the online space about whether or not Facebook advertising is actually effective.
While the panic has now subsided, the scepticism has not
As a paid media campaign manager I see success with Facebook ads every day, so at first I just brushed off this scepticism when people voiced their opinions. But, after a little consideration I realised that they may not be entirely wrong. Looking at it from another perspective, it actually all depends on how you are utilising the platform – what your goals are, whether you understand the audience and so on. Generally, the sceptics are those that don’t really know how to effectively engage the Facebook audience, so understandably their campaigns may not perform as well as they would like them to.
As online marketers it really is up to us to educate others on how to best use the tools at their disposal. Facebook can work – and very well at that.
In fact, Comscore and Facebook have collaborated to create a white paper containing case studies on the effectiveness of advertising on the Facebook platform. While there might be some justifiable doubts around the reliability of this whitepaper, since Facebook had a hand in its creation, upon investigation they really do provide some solid evidence . For example, being a fan can increase purchase power:
- Starbucks saw a 38% increase in the frequency at which their fans and friends of fans bought coffee after seeing their messages.
- Target saw a 21% increase in purchases after their fans and friends of fans saw their messages.
Similarly, you can achieve good ROI on Facebook:
- 70% of ads from 63 campaigns showed a ROI of 3x the spend or better.
You simply can’t argue with statistics like that.
Granted, these are for US companies, but the US is even more saturated and has much higher CPCs than what we see in SA, so it can only be better, or at the very least, on par with the US – provided marketers run the campaigns correctly.
Let’s look at a few examples of how you can effectively use Facebook ads:
Example 1: You have an online retail site. Create a Facebook tab with a promotion for 20% off with a specified coupon code. Put a time limit on it, “For today only”. Set up a Facebook campaign and direct people to that tab. Interact with the fans during and afterwards.
Example 2: Create an interactive game or app on Facebook. Call it something catchy. Create a Facebook campaign. Drive traffic to that tab. Have monthly winners. When this campaign is over, keep those Fans engaged with relevant posts – not punting your business.
The main point is to keep your fans engaged. Otherwise, your Facebook advertising efforts will fail, and it’s pretty easy to see why. Some ideas include:
- Giving them relevant content.
- Responding to their questions.
- Giving them special deals for being a loyal customer and staying a fan of your page.
There is no point in spending money just to get people to your page. That doesn’t serve any purpose except being able to say: “I’ve got 349801 fans!” It’s what you do with them afterwards that counts. Sure, the mechanic of getting the fans there is just as important, but keeping them there is what makes the money spent worth it.
Ultimately keep your brand alive for the people who love it and are interested in it, and for those who could be interested.
